Beginner in programming & coding look for helps n tips!

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Beginner in programming & coding look for helps n tips!
Posted on: 12.03.2013 by Rhona Dessler
I want to learn how to code...so natrually I turn to the DJTT community to see if anyone has any places to start/suggestions/books/tuturials theyd suggest?! I figure theres gotta be a few programmers on here somewhere!

Looking around on the internets it looks like Treehouse is going to be my jumping point...even though its going to cost me at least $25 a month...it looks effective, and also fun.
Rhona Dessler
14.03.2013
Originally Posted by synthet1c
if your doing web stuff check out w3schools for the basic building blocks. If you want a career IMO it's best to avoid libraries like jquery as you won't learn the native javascript and will be reliant on the library to do everything for you. When you have a fair idea about what javascript can do then it's cool to use libraries, but with the advances in HTML and CSS purposed for release in 2014 you really shouldn't need libraries or adobe flash moving forward as they just bloat your page with unneeded functions.

PS the real money in web sites is in the design not the coding, as that can easily be done offshore by someone willing to take much less money than you. The designer is irreplaceable though.
@Ryan Reul Thanks man! And I will definitely look into management systems, sounds like what I'm looking for. I've always considered learning more about SQL and databases, because they are frequently used in business. I've learned a small amount about what they are, how they work, and very basic SQL in some of my classes actually.


@synthet1c whoaaaa w3schools is awesome. one little lesson thing, and I'm already hooked haha. Not sure what a library is or even what a jquery is but I'll take your advice and stay away, concentrate on HTML and C.

PS - I'm not in this for a career, more of a career booster i guess ? haha but I do love design, as a young kid I drew a lot and have a couple notebooks full of grafitti after high school. So I would actually love to get into that one day, but I feel like this is the good way to start down that road.


PSSS I'll be launching my DJing adventures to the public soon enough, but for now you can see a tiny amount of the design that I have done at my twitter handle, @DISCVR_ ...the Lion smoking with headphones was made entirely by me on Pages for Mac.

Check it out and tell me what you believe! Shit while you're there you might as well follow?! hahaha had to throw it in there.....
Caleb Demillo
14.03.2013
Originally Posted by DJ_JCohh
Thanks to everyone for commenting, the post quoted really helped.

This has all got me believeing about what type of path I want to pursue and the answer is I'm not 100% sure yet, but I know that in about a year and a half I'll be coming out of school and I would like to build my own (probably very simple) website where I can house all of my school work, social media profiles, marketing/social media plans and profiles (that aren't just my personal ones). Basically I want a website-esque Resume or Portfolio to show to employers how I've developed a plan, and then executed said plan using the social media, guerilla marketing, etc. This may sound a little bit out there lol, but I promise it works in my head and when it all pans out it will be well worth it.
That's a cool goal. It sounds like what you want to explore are content management systems. They are frameworks for building websites to do exactly what you are looking to do.

Many of those are extensible and configurable via custom scripting and such, so some programming is very helpful. You can also learn some SQL in the process, if it's database driven.
Rhona Dessler
14.03.2013
Originally Posted by protocol
If you're going to learn to code, you're going to learn to be a programmer first. Coding is just the writing of it, but good programming involves more than just the code - you need to follow good design principles, write good documentation, etc.

First, you need to start with your goal in mind. What device are you writing it for and what do you want the code to make it do? You can "psuedo-code" the instructions to help you, ie. like this:

while (button pressed on midi fighter)
{
make LED light up green;
play sample;
}

Then translate that to the language you pick.

From there you can decide on a language to use. There are lots of good resources out there. Some people might recommend starting with Python for beginners, but I started with C and found that despite having a steeper learning curve, it was well worth it.
Thanks to everyone for commenting, the post quoted really helped.

This has all got me believeing about what type of path I want to pursue and the answer is I'm not 100% sure yet, but I know that in about a year and a half I'll be coming out of school and I would like to build my own (probably very simple) website where I can house all of my school work, social media profiles, marketing/social media plans and profiles (that aren't just my personal ones). Basically I want a website-esque Resume or Portfolio to show to employers how I've developed a plan, and then executed said plan using the social media, guerilla marketing, etc. This may sound a little bit out there lol, but I promise it works in my head and when it all pans out it will be well worth it.
Caleb Demillo
14.03.2013
Originally Posted by Steve Zorilow
I'll never stress enough on how good and abundant comments/documentation across the code IS important.

Neat code indentation/formatting is also a major plus.
Another good suggestion, get yourself a github account, and download some source code for some established projects in the language you are learning.

You'll be able to see what experienced programmers do regarding coding styles and design (provided it's a decent project).

Also, get proficient in a good editor that isn't notepad VIM/Emacs are the standards on UNIX like systems. There are many choices out there. I'm a VIM proponent
Caleb Demillo
13.03.2013
Originally Posted by Steve Zorilow
Not more powerful, but more "standard". Power's behind the keyboad
Touche, although there is little argument to the power of using a proper compiled language like C++ over, say Java or scripting languages. C++ can be overwhelming for a newcomer, though (templates, polymorphism, operator overloading, STL, etc).

Everyone should learn C pointers inside and out though. It blows my mind how people get into the field and still get hung up on pointers!
Caleb Demillo
22.03.2013		Or learn VIM or Emacs
Jonathan Chiuchiolo
15.03.2013		a library is just abstracted javascript... most people use it only for AJAX Requests and simple animations but that can be done with javascript and CSS on everything but IE < 9 "you will come to hate Internet Explorer, trust me".

The point of jquery is to have cross browser compatibility without typing a lot as smarter people have found the bugs and worked them out for you.. If your not in it for a career then jquery is probably the fastest way to get the ball rolling without spending 6 months understanding javascript properly. If you are wanting to use AJAX which loads info from a server on the page without reloading the entire page then you need a little PHP and definately need SQL to manage everything. w3schools although generally given shit from programmers will get you about 80% of the way to a fully functional website.

for designing websites I used to look at smashingMagazine and CSSTricks for great examples and tutorials on just CSS.

finally get sublime text 2 as your text editor. It absolutely owns anything else I have used. you can run it from your harddrive or usb and it has a free trial which never runs out, but when you feel it's earned a purchase to support the development it's only $60. Text-mate on Mac is also pretty good with some features not possible in sublime.

there is an amazing tutorial on sublime from nettuts

Rhona Dessler
14.03.2013
Originally Posted by synthet1c
if your doing web stuff check out w3schools for the basic building blocks. If you want a career IMO it's best to avoid libraries like jquery as you won't learn the native javascript and will be reliant on the library to do everything for you. When you have a fair idea about what javascript can do then it's cool to use libraries, but with the advances in HTML and CSS purposed for release in 2014 you really shouldn't need libraries or adobe flash moving forward as they just bloat your page with unneeded functions.

PS the real money in web sites is in the design not the coding, as that can easily be done offshore by someone willing to take much less money than you. The designer is irreplaceable though.
@Ryan Reul Thanks man! And I will definitely look into management systems, sounds like what I'm looking for. I've always considered learning more about SQL and databases, because they are frequently used in business. I've learned a small amount about what they are, how they work, and very basic SQL in some of my classes actually.


@synthet1c whoaaaa w3schools is awesome. one little lesson thing, and I'm already hooked haha. Not sure what a library is or even what a jquery is but I'll take your advice and stay away, concentrate on HTML and C.

PS - I'm not in this for a career, more of a career booster i guess ? haha but I do love design, as a young kid I drew a lot and have a couple notebooks full of grafitti after high school. So I would actually love to get into that one day, but I feel like this is the good way to start down that road.


PSSS I'll be launching my DJing adventures to the public soon enough, but for now you can see a tiny amount of the design that I have done at my twitter handle, @DISCVR_ ...the Lion smoking with headphones was made entirely by me on Pages for Mac.

Check it out and tell me what you believe! Shit while you're there you might as well follow?! hahaha had to throw it in there.....
Jonathan Chiuchiolo
14.03.2013		if your doing web stuff check out w3schools for the basic building blocks. If you want a career IMO it's best to avoid libraries like jquery as you won't learn the native javascript and will be reliant on the library to do everything for you. When you have a fair idea about what javascript can do then it's cool to use libraries, but with the advances in HTML and CSS purposed for release in 2014 you really shouldn't need libraries or adobe flash moving forward as they just bloat your page with unneeded functions.

PS the real money in web sites is in the design not the coding, as that can easily be done offshore by someone willing to take much less money than you. The designer is irreplaceable though.
Caleb Demillo
14.03.2013
Originally Posted by DJ_JCohh
Thanks to everyone for commenting, the post quoted really helped.

This has all got me believeing about what type of path I want to pursue and the answer is I'm not 100% sure yet, but I know that in about a year and a half I'll be coming out of school and I would like to build my own (probably very simple) website where I can house all of my school work, social media profiles, marketing/social media plans and profiles (that aren't just my personal ones). Basically I want a website-esque Resume or Portfolio to show to employers how I've developed a plan, and then executed said plan using the social media, guerilla marketing, etc. This may sound a little bit out there lol, but I promise it works in my head and when it all pans out it will be well worth it.
That's a cool goal. It sounds like what you want to explore are content management systems. They are frameworks for building websites to do exactly what you are looking to do.

Many of those are extensible and configurable via custom scripting and such, so some programming is very helpful. You can also learn some SQL in the process, if it's database driven.
Rhona Dessler
14.03.2013
Originally Posted by protocol
If you're going to learn to code, you're going to learn to be a programmer first. Coding is just the writing of it, but good programming involves more than just the code - you need to follow good design principles, write good documentation, etc.

First, you need to start with your goal in mind. What device are you writing it for and what do you want the code to make it do? You can "psuedo-code" the instructions to help you, ie. like this:

while (button pressed on midi fighter)
{
make LED light up green;
play sample;
}

Then translate that to the language you pick.

From there you can decide on a language to use. There are lots of good resources out there. Some people might recommend starting with Python for beginners, but I started with C and found that despite having a steeper learning curve, it was well worth it.
Thanks to everyone for commenting, the post quoted really helped.

This has all got me believeing about what type of path I want to pursue and the answer is I'm not 100% sure yet, but I know that in about a year and a half I'll be coming out of school and I would like to build my own (probably very simple) website where I can house all of my school work, social media profiles, marketing/social media plans and profiles (that aren't just my personal ones). Basically I want a website-esque Resume or Portfolio to show to employers how I've developed a plan, and then executed said plan using the social media, guerilla marketing, etc. This may sound a little bit out there lol, but I promise it works in my head and when it all pans out it will be well worth it.
Caleb Demillo
14.03.2013
Originally Posted by Steve Zorilow
I'll never stress enough on how good and abundant comments/documentation across the code IS important.

Neat code indentation/formatting is also a major plus.
Another good suggestion, get yourself a github account, and download some source code for some established projects in the language you are learning.

You'll be able to see what experienced programmers do regarding coding styles and design (provided it's a decent project).

Also, get proficient in a good editor that isn't notepad VIM/Emacs are the standards on UNIX like systems. There are many choices out there. I'm a VIM proponent
Lisa Lochotzki
13.03.2013		I'll never stress enough on how good and abundant comments/documentation across the code IS important.

Neat code indentation/formatting is also a major plus.
Toya Spor
13.03.2013		If you're going to learn to code, you're going to learn to be a programmer first. Coding is just the writing of it, but good programming involves more than just the code - you need to follow good design principles, write good documentation, etc.

First, you need to start with your goal in mind. What device are you writing it for and what do you want the code to make it do? You can "psuedo-code" the instructions to help you, ie. like this:

while (button pressed on midi fighter)
{
make LED light up green;
play sample;
}

Then translate that to the language you pick.

From there you can decide on a language to use. There are lots of good resources out there. Some people might recommend starting with Python for beginners, but I started with C and found that despite having a steeper learning curve, it was well worth it.
Lisa Lochotzki
13.03.2013		C/C++ is a strong base. From there C#, Python, etc etc are just a breeze to learn.

Assembler is still a valuable language in embedded programming, however bad assembler programming is not better than any good optimized C/C++, Basic, .... compiler. But like SYNC, it's an endless debate

Most C/C++ code can be use everywhere, on every platform/OS (embedded or else) with little modifications too.

Everyone should learn C pointers inside and out though. It blows my mind how people get into the field and still get hung up on pointers!
Yup. Kind of thing I'll really need to refresh. I haven't done much C/C++ lately.
Caleb Demillo
13.03.2013
Originally Posted by Steve Zorilow
Not more powerful, but more "standard". Power's behind the keyboad
Touche, although there is little argument to the power of using a proper compiled language like C++ over, say Java or scripting languages. C++ can be overwhelming for a newcomer, though (templates, polymorphism, operator overloading, STL, etc).

Everyone should learn C pointers inside and out though. It blows my mind how people get into the field and still get hung up on pointers!
Lisa Lochotzki
13.03.2013		Not more powerful, but more "standard". Power's behind the keyboad
Caleb Demillo
13.03.2013
Originally Posted by synthet1c
I'm still yet to attempt to learn C++ so can't comment on it, but python is plenty for lots of types of applications.
Yes of course it is. I'm a software engineer, so I work in C/C++ and do embedded stuff. Super nerdy.
Jonathan Chiuchiolo
13.03.2013		I'm still yet to attempt to learn C++ so can't comment on it, but python is plenty for lots of types of applications.
Caleb Demillo
13.03.2013
Originally Posted by synthet1c
if you want web programming to start you off I recommend codeWithJosh and developPHP on youtube as teachers of the absolute basics then nettuts and smashCoding for more advanced stuff when you get bored with the basics. I believe it's good to start with javascript as it's pretty easy to get your head around and will make the transition to a more powerful language like python easier
A more powerful language is C++
Jonathan Chiuchiolo
13.03.2013		if you want web programming to start you off I recommend codeWithJosh and developPHP on youtube as teachers of the absolute basics then nettuts and smashCoding for more advanced stuff when you get bored with the basics. I believe it's good to start with javascript as it's pretty easy to get your head around and will make the transition to a more powerful language like python easier/

PS stackedOverflow is the best most helpful community in existance,
Caleb Demillo
13.03.2013		That's a pretty good tutorial and will teach you the basic concepts.

What is your programming goal?

In general, a good programmer can code in any language, but it does take time to get there. But, something like the above will at least get you started!

Over time it becomes much less about a particular language, and more about solving problems, design, algorithms, etc.
Merlyn Birchfield
13.03.2013		Here's a great free one, which is based off of Python:

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist
http://www.openbookproject.net/believe...on/english2e/#

The thing I like about this one is that the whole point is to teach you how to program, not just how to use Python. They are assuming you are brand new to the idea. And they are using a modern interpreted web language which is useful and not overly verbose.
Lisa Lochotzki
12.03.2013		Lots of different ways. "Sams Teach Yourself" and the usual "For dummies" books are usually pretty good to start. Have a look at code.org too.

The more you do, the easier it gets. So I recommend you to join some programming related community and try answering/solving other user post. It works for me in past, and still work when I want to learn another language.
Chandra Lean
12.03.2013		there is an online coding academy.

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